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JI EXCLUSIVE — Senators Ted Cruz (R-TX) and Tom Cotton (R-AR) are expected to introduce a Senate resolution today encouraging the United States to formally recognize Israel’s sovereignty over the Golan Heights, Jewish Insider has learned.

According to a draft of the resolution: “Israel’s sovereignty over the Golan Heights is critical to Israel’s national security. Israel’s security from attack from Syria and Lebanon cannot be assured without Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights. It is in the United States’ national security interest to ensure Israel’s security.”

In the wake of Syria's long-running civil war, the Senate measure also mentions formal recognition as a punitive measure to the Assad regime: “It is in the United States’ national security interest to ensure that the Assad regime faces diplomatic and geopolitical consequences for the killing of civilians, the ethnic cleansing of Syrian Sunnis, and the use of weapons of mass destruction.” [JewishInsider]

BACKSTORY — Since President Reagan’s strong rebuke of Israel’s annexation of the Golan in 1981, consecutive administrations from both political parties have been unwilling to change existing U.S. policy. However, the U.S. has also traditionally abstained from voting on resolutions against Israeli occupation of the Golan Heights at the United Nations, although last month, the Trump administration voted for the first time against a UN resolution that condemned Israel’s occupation of the Golan Heights.

Israel has been lobbying for this move for years. In 2015, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called for formal recognition of the Golan Heights by the Obama administration during a visit to the U.S. Senator Cruz, a Republican candidate for President at the time, endorsed Netanyahu’s request in 2016. Netanyahu also raised the issue in his first White House meeting with President Donald Trump in February 2017, and more recently expressed hope that the Trump administration would include recognition as part of broader U.S. policy in Syria.

Former Ambassador Daniel Shapiro emails: “There is no plausible scenario where Israeli-Syrian peace talks will resume, perhaps in our lifetime. The status quo, therefore, strongly reinforces Israel's presence on the Golan Heights. Declarations by the U.S. Senate or the administration will add little to the picture. One thing they may do is put Syrian opposition groups, who are focused on Assad and not on Israel, in the position where they feel they must make statements about Syria regaining the Golan Heights in order to demonstrate their Syrian patriotism. It is less than clear how Israel will benefit from the U.S. sparking this discussion when, at present, no Syrian is talking about it.”

FDD’s Jonathan Schanzer tells us: “Recognition of Israel’s sovereignty over the Golan would be consistent with the Trump administration’s overall policy, which has been to strengthen Israeli diplomatic and security positions. As I heard from one senior administration official several months ago, this administration believes that a strong Israel, and an Israel that is confident in its relationship with the United States, is one that will be more inclined to make certain compromises when the time comes.”

“It certainly makes a lot of sense, and I think it’s an important move, because I don’t see the Golan changing hands, really ever at this point, barring some miraculous change in the status quo. The question is how does this fit into the administration’s overall plans for Syria? And more importantly, perhaps, is how does this fit into the administration’s so-called deal of the century? It probably doesn’t have too much of a role in the latter. The former could be interesting right now only because you have an administration that seems like it’s trying to change some policies in Syria.”

IPF’s Michael Koplow: “Ambassador David Friedman knocked back this idea a few months ago when it was raised by MK Yair Lapid and others, and it hasn’t been something that the administration has pushed for in the past, so I’d be surprised if they do so now. Unlike Israel’s presence in the West Bank, there is little to no pressure for Israel to leave the Golan and its sovereignty there is essentially unchallenged and non-controversial. So formally recognizing it may end up being counterproductive by calling attention to an issue that has been quiet. It also runs the risk of heating up southern Syria by baiting Hezbollah and other pro-regime forces into carrying out a response.”

PODCAST PLAYBACK — Howard Wolfson, a Democratic political strategist and senior advisor to Michael Bloomberg, discussed his Jewish upbringing and the rise of global anti-Semitism on The Axe Files podcast with David Axelrod: "There was a lot of conversation in my father's parents' house of the Holocaust and the impact of the Holocaust on their family and the Jewish people as a whole. I have a very early memory of them talking about the Holocaust and what it meant to them."

"They were corresponding with relatives — in the old country if you will — with some frequency. Then all of a sudden the letters stop. That was obviously a pretty telling indication that something terrible was happening and had happened. I sort of felt like there was this life that had been touched by history... These were not people who were congressmen or mayors or presidents, but I think I learned pretty early on that circumstances can really impact what happens to people."

Axelrod: You commented recently on this surge in anti-Semitic acts here in this country, with Pittsburgh being the most tragic of them. You must see them in the context of history.

Wolfson: "I do. I feel like we're living through history again. Not in ways that we would have necessarily imagined or certainly hoped for. I am enormously hopeful based on the results of the last election. I am worried about the larger set of circumstances that a lot of us find ourselves in and see around us. If you look at the western world, there's a lot of turmoil and a lot of anger, a lot of unrest and tumult. It's a worrisome time."

Axelrod: You see phrases that you saw in the past about globalists and international bankers and the corrupt media. Some of it has been aimed by the President of the United States at the guy you work for (Mike Bloomberg).

Wolfson: "He actually hasn't been... He's not been overly critical of Mike, but phrases like that have echoes in history and they're not good ones. As I said, I think it's a worrisome time. Having said that, I think that there was a real reaction to a lot of this on the part of the American people in the last midterm election."

Wolfson on getting over the fear of flying: "The joke that I tell, which I think has some grain of truth to it, is that after Hillary [Clinton] lost in 2008 I was so depressed that I needed to get out of the country and I didn't care whether I lived or died to do it. So I got on a plane to the UK, I was able to take a number of trips there, and somehow just snapped out of it."

Axelrod: Are you ready to commit yourself to another campaign?

Wolfson: "If Mike [Bloomberg] runs, I will do anything I can that he wants me to do to be helpful to him. So, certainly." [AxeFiles]

WATCH: Comedian Modi Rosenfeld, known as MODI, roasted former Senator Joe Lieberman at the Commentary Magazine annual fundraiser held on October 8 at the Plaza Hotel in NYC. The dinner was off the record at the time, but Modi posted highlights of his routine from the event yesterday. [Video]

SPOTLIGHT — These Democrats Will Soon Have the Power to Investigate the White House. How Far Will They Go? — by Jason Zengerle: "One afternoon in late November, [Rep. Jerry] Nadler, the incoming Judiciary Committee chairman, was in his congressional office. The walls were bare, save some exposed nails. All the pictures and framed bills that once hung on them were piled in a plastic-lined dumpster in the reception area — “Jerry’s bucket of achievements,” Daniel Schwarz, Nadler’s communications director, joked. Nadler was in the process of moving to a space closer to the Judiciary Committee’s offices... The Judiciary Committee is endowed with the authority to start impeachment proceedings against a president... Nadler is thus probably the committee chairman most likely to find himself caught between the expectations of the Democratic base and the political and institutional realities their representatives are now subject to."

"Still, as he sat in his emptying office, Nadler did not sound like someone eager to lead a potential impeachment. “The fact that you find impeachable offenses and the fact that you think you can prove impeachable offenses,” he said, “doesn’t necessarily mean the offenses rise to the level of importance where you should impeach.” When I spoke to Nadler a couple of weeks later, after federal prosecutors said that Trump directed Michael Cohen to make payments in violation of campaign-finance laws to squelch a sex scandal, he still sounded cautious. “I don’t think things have changed, really,” Nadler said. “We know a little more, but there’s a lot more to know.” [NYTimesMag]

ON THE HILL — Ocasio-Cortez weighs a new primary target: Hakeem Jeffries — by Laura Barron-Lopez: "Rep.-elect Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is eyeing a new member of House Democratic leadership as a 2020 primary target: Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.)... A person who has discussed the project with Ocasio-Cortez and her team said the congresswoman-elect has recruited an African-American woman to challenge Jeffries, who was just elected to replace Crowley as caucus chairman — the No. 5 House Democratic leadership position." [Politico]

DEEP DIVE — Trump Previously Lined the Pockets of His Democrat Defender Mark Penn — by Sam Stein and Lachlan Markay: “Nearly three decades before he was elected President of the United States, Donald Trump was looking to build the tallest building in the world. The plan called for a huge development on Manhattan’s Upper West Side... as the relocated home of NBC and tentatively be dubbed Trump City. Trump… wanted to marshal some data showing that everyday New Yorkers supported the project. So Trump’s company turned to a group of Democratic pollsters to conduct a survey. The work done by the firm Penn & Schoen Associates didn’t help get Trump’s project built. But it did provide the first known link between Trump and one of the firm’s namesakes, Mark Penn, who has emerged in the last year as one of the president’s most outspoken defenders… Penn’s columns in The Hill routinely attack the president’s political and legal adversaries." [DailyBeast]

TALK OF THE REGION — Covert Saudi Outreach to Israel Sputters After Journalist’s Murder — by Felicia Schwartz, Margherita Stancati and Summer Said: "A secretive U.S.-backed initiative to forge closer ties between Saudi Arabia and Israel faces setbacks after the crown prince, who spearheaded the effort, was implicated in... [Jamal Khashoggi’s] killing along with two of his aides... The two aides, former royal court adviser Saud al-Qahtani and former deputy intelligence chief Ahmed al-Assiri, played important roles in the clandestine outreach to Israel... Mr. Qahtani, as media adviser, issued directives to the Saudi press to help soften Israel’s image in the kingdom... He was also involved in the kingdom’s purchase of advanced surveillance technology from Israeli firms... Maj. Gen. Assiri... secretly traveled to Israel on several occasions, making him the most senior Saudi official known to have set foot in the country."

"The Saudi government, meanwhile, has been weighing an investment of at least $100 million in various Israeli technology companies, according to people familiar with the deal. Since the Khashoggi killing, negotiations on that deal have cooled but contacts continue." [WSJ]

Israel says Airbnb walking back settlement boycott; company denies it — by Jacob Magid: "Amid a confusing series of statements and clarifications, Airbnb on Monday rejected an Israeli government assertion that it had agreed to walk back its decision to remove listings from Israeli settlements in the West Bank. “The reports issued earlier today are inaccurate,” the company said in a statement issued by its press secretary, Nick Papas. This apparent denial came shortly after the Tourism Ministry issued a statement of its own, saying Airbnb had told officials that it would not be implementing its policy — a move the ministry called “a step in the right direction.” [ToI]

— Barak Ravid reports: "An Airbnb delegation arrived secretly in Israel [yesterday] and held talks with the minister of tourism and his aides. Israeli officials said the talks were very difficult, with [Yariv] Levin conveying tough messages to [Airbnb VP Chris] Lehane... Officials at Airbnb tell me the company will continue the dialogue with the Israeli government before deciding whether to keep the policy or change it."

Scooplet: Airbnb’s Director of Global Policy Margaret Richardson met with the Jewish Federations of North America in NYC last week.

Netanyahu says Israeli agents ‘periodically visit’ Iran to monitor nuke program: “Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told a group of diplomats on Sunday that Israeli agents continue to operate inside Iran as part of Israel’s efforts to thwart the nuclear ambitions of the Islamic republic… “We also visit there periodically… to ‘catch up,'” Netanyahu added without giving specific details.” [ToI]

The Harvard-educated woman helping lead Iran’s sanctions fight — by Najmeh Bozorgmehr: "Laya Joneydi, a 50-year-old academic, is a woman with no ties to conventional politicians and no personal stories from Iran’s revolutionary years. But as Iran’s vice-president for legal affairs she has already secured a rare if symbolic victory over the U.S. on the global stage. After the Trump administration this year withdrew from the 2015 nuclear agreement and reimposed sanctions on Iran, Ms Joneydi filed a lawsuit in co-operation with other ministries against the US at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) — and Iran won. Ms. Joneydi’s rise is the result of mounting public pressure on Iran’s leaders to appoint women to top jobs." [FinancialTimes]

TALK OF THE TOWN — Texas Elementary School Speech Pathologist Lost Her Job for Refusing to Sign Pro-Israel Oath — by Audrey McNamara: “Texas’s ban on contracting with any boycotter of Israel constitutes viewpoint discrimination that chills constitutionally-protected political advocacy in support of Palestine,” reads the lawsuit filed by children’s speech pathologist Bahia Amawi... The Pflugerville Independent School District included new language in their contracts this year requiring that employees “will not boycott Israel during the term of the contract." ... Amawi was told there was no alternative: Either Amawi signed the oath or the district, as a public institution, would not pay her." [DailyBeast; TheIntercept]

2020 WATCH— Tulsi Gabbard Is Moving Toward An Unconventional Presidential Campaign. Her Fans See “Bernie 2.0.” — by Alexis Levinson: "[Rep. Tulsi] Gabbard has acknowledged that she is “seriously considering” a presidential bid. Her team is actively seeking to staff senior roles on a potential presidential campaign... and has indicated that an announcement could come as soon as this week... Gabbard’s trip to Nevada before the midterms was not the typical political tour of the Las Vegas area, said Christine Kramar, who helped put the trip together... The trip involved... a speech at a synagogue." [BuzzFeed]

— Tulsi Gabbard Will Remind Voters What a Democratic Foreign Policy Looks Like — by Noah Rothman: "Gabbard’s conspicuous adoption of the Putinist line on Syria places her outside the mainstream of her party, but it once yielded admiration from Donald Trump’s brain trust. According to people close to former White House strategist Steve Bannon, the president’s former campaign chairman was a big fan of the Hawaii congresswoman’s views on foreign affairs. He arranged a meeting between her and the president-elect during the transition period with the aim of securing an administration post for Gabbard and even floated her name as a potential ambassador to the United Nations under Trump." [CommentaryMagazine]

Is Cory Booker the Candidate of the Christian Left? — by Ed Kilgore: "You often hear of Democratic presidential candidates having to pass the test of sounding authentic in a black Baptist church in South Carolina (there was a famous incident in 2004 when an enthusiastic minister asked Joe Lieberman if he “loved Jesus,” leaving the Orthodox Jewish candidate to simply smile). Booker won’t have that problem (he’s a member of a National Baptist congregation in Newark, and was raised in the AME church), and it may help him not only against white candidates like Bernie Sanders and Joe Biden but against fellow senator Kamala Harris, who says she split time between a black Baptist church and a Hindu temple growing up." [NYMag]

Cory Booker’s Theory of Love — by Franklin Foer: "When I met with Booker this month, he reminded me several times that he had recently returned from New Hampshire. His barely concealed preparations for a presidential run have included the unveiling of large-scale, creative policy proposals that should put to rest any questions about where he resides ideologically... Despite all this aggressive legislation, his tone remains stridently conciliatory. A recurring theme in his speeches is love—or as he once put it, “unreasonable, irrational, impractical love.” [TheAtlantic]

** Good Tuesday Morning! Enjoying the Daily Kickoff? Please share us with your friends & tell them to sign up at [JI]. Have a tip, scoop, or op-ed? We’d love to hear from you. Anything from hard news and punditry to the lighter stuff, including event coverage, job transitions, or even special birthdays, is much appreciated. Email Editor@JewishInsider.com **

BUSINESS BRIEFS: CBS Says Les Moonves Will Not Receive $120 Million Severance [NYTimes; WSJ] Sumner Redstone's Speech Impairment Warrants a Legal Guardian, Judge Rules [HollywoodReporter] LionTree founder Aryeh Bourkoff is urging his colleagues to 'brace themselves' against impending instability [BusinessInsider] It Was Easy for New Hedge Funds to Raise Money in 2018. Making It Was Harder [WSJ] Oprah recalls the email she sent to "Bobby" Iger after seeing Black Panther for the first time [Video] h/t Dylan Byers

PROFILE — Elastic Software Founder Doubles Wealth in 60 Days to Become Billionaire — by Tom Metcalf and Benjamin Stupples: Elastic NV co-founder Steven Schuurman more than doubled his fortune in two months to become a billionaire as the software company’s stock skyrocketed. Shares of Elastic climbed 15 percent to $82 at the close in New York, leaving them up 128 percent since the Oct. 4 initial public offering. The firm, which supplies search and data software to companies including Credit Suisse Group AG, Accenture Plc and Uber Technologies Inc., is scheduled to report second-quarter results after U.S. markets close Tuesday. Schuurman co-founded Elastic in 2012 in Amsterdam along with Shay Banon, Uri Boness and Simon Willnauer... Schuurman is Elastic’s biggest shareholder with a 19 percent stake valued at $1.1 billion." [Bloomberg]

Facebook's Sheryl Sandberg Was Supposed To Change The World With "Lean In." So What Went Wrong? — by Caroline O'Donovan: "While Sandberg grapples with the fallout from Facebook’s many missteps, the women’s movement she founded with the publication of Lean In in 2013 is also faltering... Interviews with current and former employees and leading feminists, suggest Lean In — now the Sheryl Sandberg and Dave Goldberg Family Foundation, in honor of Sandberg’s late husband — has struggled to retain its place in the forefront of the women’s movement despite intense internal pressure to make radical change." [BuzzFeed]

MEDIA WATCH — CBS News Faces Leadership Void as Harassment Probe Drags On — by Marisa Guthrie: “An investigation into the culture of CBS — spurred by allegations raised last summer against [Les] Moonves — likely played a role in delaying the selection of a permanent executive producer at 60 Minutes, among the focal points of the probe into the news division... And news division staffers... have expressed frustration and dismay at the lack of communication from their corporate overlords and CBS News president David Rhodes. “There’s a lot of anger right now,” says one staffer. Rhodes’ allies argue that some of that anger is misplaced. The lack of closure from the investigations has been particularly frustrating, but out of Rhodes’ control, these sources contend." [HollywoodReporter]

NEXT UP — Weekly Standard founder Bill Kristol is expected to join Davidson College as the inaugural visiting Vann Professor of Ethics in Society in 2019, the school announced yesterday. Kristol will teach a seminar class on campus in the fall semester, work with students on independent projects, and help the school design programming. He was most recently editor-at-large of the conservative magazine The Weekly Standard until it was shut down last week.

TALK OF THE NATION — Alice Walker under fire for praise of 'anti-Semitic' David Icke book — by Luke O'Neil: "The New York Times Book Review and Alice Walker have come under criticism for comments the celebrated writer made in an interview with the publication in which she recommended a work by someone accused of anti-Semitism. Asked what books were currently on her nightstand, Walker, the author of The Color Purple, mentioned among others And the Truth Shall Set You Free, by the controversial British figure David Icke... “The book is an unhinged anti-Semitic conspiracy tract written by one of Britain’s most notorious anti-Semites,” wrote Tablet magazine’s Yair Rosenberg... Rosenberg also faulted the Times for failing to react to or qualify the contents of the book to its readers... “And like many conspiracy theorists, Icke claims that this secret conspiracy happens to be Jewish,” Rosenberg added." [TheGuardian; TabletMag]

Germany to compensate hundreds who fled Nazis as children — by David Rising: “Germany has agreed to one-time payments for survivors, primarily Jews, who were evacuated from Nazi Germany as children, many of whom never saw their parents again... The New York-based Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany said the government had agreed to payments of 2,500 euros ($2,800) to those still alive from among the 10,000 people who fled on the so-called “Kindertransport.”... About 1,000 survivors are thought to be alive today, with about half living in Britain, and the payment is seen as a “symbolic recognition of their suffering,” Claims Conference negotiator Greg Schneider said.” [AP]

LONG READ — What Cafés Did for Liberalism — by Adam Gopnik: "Shachar Pinsker’s “A Rich Brew: How Cafés Created Modern Jewish Culture” (New York University) might seem, at a glance, like one of those “Bagels of Our Fathers” books that a Leo Rosten could have written back when Jewishness, as a cultural subject, still struck Americans as fresh and mostly funny. The cover shows an appealing pastel of a sunny, amazingly high-ceilinged and arch-filled café in Berlin—a lost Eden of conviviality and conversation. And the book itself is hugely entertaining and intimidatingly well researched, with scarcely a café in which a Jewish writer raised a cup of coffee from Warsaw to New York left undocumented... The cafés of the various European cities that Pinsker focusses on—Warsaw, Vienna, and Berlin—reflected, with startling specificity, the Jewish reality around them." [NewYorker]

TRANSITION — Gail Reiss has been hired as the new President and CEO of the Jewish Agency International Development (JAID), which was created in 2010 to serve as the organization’s fundraising arm in North America. Reiss previously served as Vice President of the UJA-Federation of New York’s Philanthropic Leadership Group.

DESSERT — All-kosher version of Zavino opening on the Main Line next year— by Marielle Mondon: “The familiar slices of Center City's Zavino will soon have another home on the Main Line, with the opening of an all-kosher concept from Zavino Hospitality Group headed for Bala Cynwyd next year. The new concept, Zagafen, is a reimagining of the neighborhood's go-to casual kosher eatery, The Dairy Cafe, which officially closed for business this week. Across the street from where Dairy Cafe once operated will be the new restaurant, at 370 Montgomery Ave.” [PhillyVoice; Bizjournals]

This Restaurant Serves Authentic Vietnamese Pho To Hasids — by Shira Feder: "Every day throngs of Lubavitch Hasidim pass by Pho-Men in Crown Heights and stare. A Japanese place that doesn’t serve sushi nestled in the middle of Hasidic Crown Heights is bound to raise some eyebrows. The man (or “visionary,” as one of his staffers called him) behind those raised eyebrows is Levi Jurkowicz... ”I’m guessing when my mom will try the food, she will be proud,” he says. “She comes in a lot but she’s never going to try the food. It’s not chicken soup.” [Forward]

REMEMBERING — Rabbi Daniel Allen, philanthropy executive and Zionist activist, dies at 69: “Rabbi Daniel Allen, a noted expert on Jewish philanthropy who led the United Israel Appeal and the Reform movement’s Zionist association, has died at the age of 69... From 2012-2015 he was senior vice president of Jewish Federations of North America and executive vice chairman emeritus of its United Israel Appeal.” [JTA]

BIRTHDAYS: Former CFO of the Pentagon (2001-2004), he held high ranking posts in multiple administrations, Dov S. Zakheim turns 70... Academy Award-winning director of "Schindler's List" and "Saving Private Ryan" plus many other box-office record setters like "E.T." and "Jaws," Steven Spielberg turns 72... Winner of the 1989 Nobel Prize in Medicine, he served as director of NIH (1993-1999) and director of the National Cancer Institute (2010-2015), Harold Eliot Varmus turns 79... Office Manager in the DC office of Kator, Parks, Weiser & Harris, Ramona Cohen turns 73... Member of the US House of Representatives from Florida since 2009, he previously served in the Florida Senate (2000-2008) and the Florida House of Representatives (1992-2000), William Joseph (Bill) Posey turns 71... Film critic, historian and author of 13 books on cinema, Leonard Maltin turns 68... Winner of the 2012 Nobel Prize in Economics, professor at both Stanford and Harvard, he was the 2017 President of the American Economics Association, Alvin Elliot Roth turns 67...

Television writer, producer and director, best known as the co-creator and executive producer of the award-winning series "24" which ran for eight seasons on Fox, Joel Surnow turns 63... Labor leader, attorney, and educator, she is the president of the American Federation of Teachers, Randi Weingarten turns 61... Philanthropist who is the founder and chief executive of Third Point LLC, a NYC-based hedge fund focused on buying and repairing troubled companies, Dan Loeb turns 57... Editor since 2008 of The Jewish Chronicle (a London-based Jewish weekly newspaper since 1841), Stephen Pollard turns 54... Member of the Board of Governors of The Jewish Agency, he is the former Secretary General of World Bnei Akiva, Gael Grunewald turns 54... Principal with the communications firm 30 Point Strategies, formerly a White House speechwriter and Jewish liaison for President George W. Bush (2002-2005), Noam Neusner turns 49...

Member of the Florida House of Representatives since 2012, he was recently nominated to serve as leader of the Florida Division of Emergency Management, Jared Moskowitz turns 38... Head of policy and communications at Sidewalk Labs, he was a candidate for NYS Senate in 2016, Micah Lasher turns 37... Manager of public policy and government relations at Google Australia, he was a White House aide in the Bush 43 administration (2005-2009), Jesse Suskin turns 36 (h/ts Playbook)... Senior producer at CNN's State of the Union, Rachel Streitfeld turns 36... Chicago-based, Midwest political director for AIPAC, Marc Ashed turns 31... J.D. candidate at Columbia Law School, he was a community liaison for U.S. Representative Jerrold Nadler (D-NY-10), Eliezer H. (Elie) Peltz turns 28... Junior analyst at the International Energy Agency in Paris, Jessica Glicker turns 28... Emily Cooper...

Correction:Michael J. Abramowitz is now president of Freedom House. We had listed him with his prior position at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in yesterday’s birthday section.

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